Last-minute appointments must be need-based

On February 10, 2025, a directive from the Chief of Staff asked all heads of government institutions to take immediate steps to annul all appointments and recruitments made after December 7, 2024.

The directive, according to the letter, was based on the fact that such appointments and recruitments were not in compliance with established good governance practices and principles.

Accordingly, all heads of government institutions were requested to take the necessary steps to annul any such appointments or recruitments and to submit a comprehensive report on the actions taken to the Office of the Chief of Staff by February 17, 2025.

Surely, per this directive, hundreds of Ghanaian youth who got employed have been rendered jobless because their appointments have been revoked.

Well, history repeats itself because, when the previous government took office in January 2017, a similar exercise was carried out and many in equal measure, went back home weeping because their employment letters had been revoked.

Therefore, when the Chief of Staff issued the directive, though not surprising, the reaction was a replica of 2017 sparking mixed reaction among the general public, and to be expected, spearheaded by the opposition NPP, accusing the government for revoking the employment of youth who are also Ghanaians.

Per the Chief of Staff’s directive, a comprehensive report on actions taken was to be submitted to his office by February 17, 2025.

However, on March 5, 2025, the Ghana Education Service (GES) in carrying out the directive, in a letter signed by the acting Director-General of the GES, Prof. Ernest Kofi Davis, to all regional directors, instead of a blanket revocation of the appointments, requested for a validation to ensure that those who were genuinely qualified were retained.

Consequently, the management of the GES set up a three-member committee at the regional level to validate teachers whose appointments were revoked the previous month as a result of the directive.

As part of the scrutiny, the affected staff were directed to provide their appointment letters, academic certificates, licensure certificate and national service certificate to support the validation process.

The validation process ended last Friday, March 14, 2025, and per the instructions, those who genuinely have what it takes to enter the service would be retained.

The Daily Graphic endorses the decision by the GES, particularly so because those teachers have all it takes to be in the classroom, and more importantly, they are all Ghanaians.

Additionally, it is common knowledge that there is a high deficit of teachers, particularly in rural areas, where in some places there are only one or two teachers manning a whole school.

So, we completely support the decision of the GES to do proper auditing to validate the genuine ones and redeploy them to areas where their services are really needed.

The Daily  Graphic sees the step by the GES as welcoming and worthy of emulation by other government institutions, particularly where there is a genuine need for new recruitments. 
Of course, in institutions where there are reports of duplications of duties where a number of officers perform the same jobs, there is no justification recruiting new people to come in and just idle.

In some offices, it is reported that newly recruited staff do not even have chairs and desks and if it is so, why the need to appoint new ones?

So, we believe that in revoking the appointments, the institutions should rather carry out an audit to justify the overarching need for more staff.

It is hard time we, as a nation, ended this situation of hurriedly  recruiting or appointing people to offices when a government was about exiting.

The previous government did the same when it assumed office and now, the current government has done same.

One can imagine the trauma the affected persons are going through. Employment is a process and not an event.

As such it would be baffling if those who have been asked to go home as well as those whose appointment were revoked in previous years just found themselves in the various work places within a day. 

The Daily  Graphic believes that the nation, and especially governments, must work on this and avoid its recurrence.